MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine women's national football team is in high spirits heading into their AFC Women's Asian Cup opener vs Thailand on Friday in India.
Forward Chandler McDaniel and head coach Alen Stajcic both expressed optimism that they will be coming out with the victory despite a less than desirable head-to-head record against the Thais.
The Philippines is 0-12 when going up against the Southeast Asian powerhouse.
"I think our confidence going in is very high," McDaniel told Philippine media on Tuesday.
"We all know that this first game is very important and how we do in this first game will show how we will do in the rest of the tournament but I think everyone's going in with very high confidence... Everyone believes in each other because of all of the training camps we've done," she added.
The last time the Filipinas faced Thailand was in the 2018 edition of the same tournament.
They absorbed a respectable loss, 1-3.
Seeing his team show fight against the more established program of the Thais makes Stajcic optimistic.
"I think everyone's got a huge amount of respect for [Thailand] but as I said, in 2018, it was a 3-1 scoreline -- it was a very tight game. So if we could improve a little bit we can beat a good opponent. It's going to be a very close match," he said.
The Australian coach also said that the one-off nature of the group stages improves their chances, as they only need to come out with their A game come Friday.
"It's not a league, it's a one-off match and we can certainly compete with them and beat them on match day," Stajcic said.
A historic win against the Thais on Friday will boost the Philippines' bid in India where they aim to finish in the top two spots of their Group to move on to the knockout stages and compete for a spot in the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup.
Also on the Filipina booters' plate in the regional tournament are World No. 11 Australia and Indonesia.